


Leaving

by Tangled23



Series: Whatever It Takes [3]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst and Feels, F/M, Flashbacks, Married Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:27:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22085614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tangled23/pseuds/Tangled23
Summary: Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak have been married for 18 months when she finds the courage to ask for a divorce. For some reason, her husband is adamantly against that. He tries to keep her close because he thinks they belong together. She tries to keep him away because she thinks they have nothing in common.
Relationships: Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak
Series: Whatever It Takes [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1171046
Comments: 28
Kudos: 97





	Leaving

**Author's Note:**

> Happy New Year, guys!!! I'm very grateful to be part of this fandom. You have helped me get through so much this past year. Anyway, this is the next part of 'Whatever It Takes' so it wasn't written as a standalone. Enjoy!
> 
> PS. You can probably guess from the title that this is not a fluffy chapter but it's an important one.

The office was spacious and modern, the exact opposite of the CEO’s office at QC. There were no walls separating Ray Palmer from his executive assistant. To his right there was a large window which offered a spectacular view of the city. Every appliance was connected to a shiny red device called the ATOM which controlled the temperature of the room, the lights and anything else you could think of. In short, this was a techie’s dream come true.

In this company the boss encouraged independent thought and wasn’t shy about it. According to the rumors, there were several labs where any employer could experiment in and no one hesitated to approach the CEO with their ideas no matter how ridiculous they sounded. People spoke her language - the one that had always made everyone’s eyes glaze over - and no one thought that her ramblings were boring technobabble. If she accepted this offer, she would be respected and appreciated like she had always dreamed. 

However, Felicity had learned a valuable lesson in life; if it seemed too good to be true, that’s because it usually was. And this would have been the ideal job opportunity apart from one tiny detail. Ray Palmer was a humongous douche.

Felicity sighed and looked at the man in question as he prattled on about his accomplishments. He was obviously trying to impress her. She hadn’t had the heart to tell him that if he were really confident he wouldn’t have had to try at all. What was worse, Ray was flirting with her in a weird way that would be endearing had she not been aware of the old feud between him and her husband. Felicity strongly suspected that Ray might appreciate her smarts but he was far more interested in the fact that her last name was Queen.

She smoothed her blue dress which she had worn that morning because it made her feel confident and considered the best way to stop Ray’s monologue about his assets. Oh God, was the man actually insinuating that he had a big penis? Felicity cringed and was about to put an end to this horrifying form of flirting when someone burst through the doors of the elevator.

“Mr. Queen!”, the assistant gasped, horrified.

Oliver paid no attention to the poor woman. Instead he strode towards Felicity like a wolf preying on his latest meal. His eyes were burning so hot that they seared her all the way through. She shivered but tried to compose herself.

“Oliver!” Ray exclaimed as if he was seeing a long lost friend.

“Palmer.”

“I must congratulate you on your marriage. Your wife’s intelligence compliments your… confidence.”

Was the man actually implying that Oliver Queen, the man who had single handedly brought back QC from the brink of disaster was stupid?

“I know,” Oliver replied not bothering to defend his intellect.

"I remember when your father was alive you know. He too had made a wise choice in selecting a wife."

Felicity’s throat was burning with the need to tell Ray Palmer where to shove his compliments.

“I think that this ‘marriage’ will be very profitable for both of our companies, Oliver. Felicity Smoak and Ray Palmer working closely together, taking the world by storm. It will be a fusion like no other. The best of both worlds. With my tech and Felicity’s algorithms we’ll go far. Can you imagine?”

Felicity had once read an old fashioned term in a historical novel which she had been dying to use in real life. Like a worm, the silly word had crept into her mind and refused to leave. In the climax of the book, the heroine had interrupted the villain’s monologue by sputtering, “Balderdash!” And Felicity couldn’t think of a better response to Ray’s inane ramblings. Perhaps she could say as sternly as possible, “I would submit that this is complete balderdash!”.

She was about to giggle at the absurdity of the whole situation when she noticed that her husband’s eyes were no longer warm. Instead, he was now looking at her with a familiar coldness that Felicity had faced many times during their marriage.

“How interesting.”

Felicity used to get a little bit intimidated in the beginning whenever Oliver got this way. In her experience, people fought and shouted and yelled when they got angry. At least that’s what you did when you lived with Donna Smoak. You fought, you proclaimed to hate each other, you cried and then you made up. But Oliver did not yell. Instead he became distant. So distant that she could feel him slipping through her fingers. 

The thought was like a splash of cold water to the face. If he wanted a fight, then she would give him a fight.

“Would you excuse us for a moment, Ray?”

“Yes, Mr. Palmer. Could you give us the room?”

Ray looked flabbergasted. “You guys want me to leave my office?”

“Yes,” they said in chorus.

“I’m sorry, Ray. It’ll only be a moment.”

Felicity didn’t even look at him as he left, talking under his breath.

She knew that it was considered a defensive stance but she couldn’t help it. She crossed her arms and stared at her almost ex-husband.

“What’s your problem?”

“My problem?”

“Well, you’re the one who stormed in here in the middle of my interview.”

“You don’t need a job. You already have one.”

“What? Being the beautiful but insipid blonde escorting Oliver Queen around Starling City? Thank you but no.”

Oliver’s face closed even more. She couldn’t shake the absurd impulse to shove him, throw away his favorite tie and stomp on his foot for good measure. Dear Lord, the man could be exasperating when the mood struck him.

“Typical Oliver Queen. You let me argue by myself, then you say something that makes me feel utterly ridiculous and small before leaving and putting an end to the conversation in your own terms.”

“Leaving is your strong suit, Felicity. Not mine.”

Felicity pinched the bridge of her nose. “Do you know why I came here today, Oliver? It’s not because I find Ray Palmer irresistible or because his company is the best one in the field. Between you and me, that honor still belongs to Kord Industries.” She took a deep breath and pushed the words that felt suddenly stuck in her throat. “I came here because I want to value myself again. I want to - no, I need to show the world who I am and maybe get the chance to prove it to myself once and for all. Our…”, she wanted to say marriage but couldn’t, “arrangement was fine at first. But I can’t be wrapped in a bubble for the rest of my life. I have studied hard all my life. I graduated from MIT for a reason. And that reason was not to become a young, brainless socialite.”

Oliver didn’t miss a beat. “Then come work for us. The company is big enough that you never have to come to the CEO’s office if you don’t want to. Whatsmore, I assure you, I don’t hire incapable people no matter who they are.”

His offer was meant as an olive branch. Felicity knew that he didn’t mean to offend her but somehow he did. Her battered and bruised heart gave a jolt at the idea of working side by side with Oliver, of conquering the world together, of creating a better future… But she couldn’t. Because then she would have to accept the whispers behind her back, the comments about the length of her skirts or her ability to please her husband on her knees. She would never be appreciated. If she said yes, she would never be seen. And Felicity had enough of being invisible. She might have chosen it once when she was young and hurt after Cooper’s death. But not anymore. 

“No.” She tried to say it with patience and understanding, but it must have come out a lot harsher than she intended because Oliver narrowed his eyes and stepped into her personal space, slowly and deliberately.

“Then you cannot work for Palmer.”

“Why?”

“As long as you are married to me, you are married to the Queen name.”

"And?"

"And I forbid it."

Felicity grabbed her purse and took a step forward. She would not be intimidated by him, no matter how hard he tried. “It seems to me I made a mistake.”

“Coming here? I don’t disagree.”

“No, taking you back. Even provisionally.”

But before she managed to storm out and perform a glorious exit, worthy of Donna Smoak, he turned abruptly on his heel and left her alone. And if that wasn’t a metaphor for most of their marriage, Felicity didn’t know what was. She blinked hard to stop any stupid tears from falling.

* * *

  
_Christmas 1995_

Ollie was so excited to see his presents! He knew that Santa wasn’t real because he was a grown man not a baby like Thea but he didn’t care. Christmas was the best time of the year. Tommy did not agree with him but Tommy’s mom had died two years ago and in Ollie’s opinion that was reason enough to hate the holidays.

Their family spent every Christmas morning in front of the tree. This year, he was wearing his favorite pajamas the ones with silly reindeers on them. They always made his Mom smile and call him her ‘beautiful boy’. As he was walking down the corridor, he could hear Raisa talking to the baby in Russian. She had been teaching him too in secret, because she wasn’t certain that his parents would approve. Ollie didn’t mind because Raisa was very kind and cooked the best foods in the world so he wanted to learn her language.

He got to living room and noticed that the door wasn’t properly closed. It was better for him because that thing was _reaaally_ heavy! He was about to open it when someone yelled so loud that they scared him. Ollie thought about the consequences - that was his favorite new word and he made sure to use it often - of eavesdropping but when you were a child you realized that no one ever told you anything, at least not anything important, so he ignored the consequences and put his ear next to the tiny gap.

“It’s Christmas, Robert. Surely, the company can wait for a day?”

“You know it cannot. Why do we keep having this argument?”

Ollie could hear nothing but breathing for a while. Was his father leaving for work? At Christmas? Even Mr. Merlyn stayed at home on this day and he wasn’t as cool as his dad!

“Robert, do not make me say it. Just stay home, please. For Oliver.”

“Ollie is a child, Moira. As long as he gets his presents, he will be fine.”

“How can you say that? He adores you. No present will ever be enough to pacify him if you are gone when he wakes up.”

Ollie didn’t know what ‘pacify’ meant but it didn’t sound good. This talk made him feel weird in his chest like the time Tommy’s mom was gone and they had to put her in the ground. He didn’t like it.

“What can I tell you, Moira? I will be back tomorrow and I will spend the day with him. Will that make it alright?”

“No, it will not!”

Now, his Mom sounded mad. It reminded Ollie of the time she had caught him and Tommy with a bottle of cognac. They, of course, had only taken a tiny sip before they had realized that cognac wasn’t anything like Coke. Tommy had said that people must lose their taste as they grow older, that’s why they didn’t like candy and instead liked stuff that were so horrible. They had promised each other never to open the liquor cabinet again after that. His Mom, however, had gotten so angry that she had forbidden any outside activities for a month.

“Listen, Robert. I put up with your indiscretions during the first years of our marriage when I had trouble conceiving-

Ollie tried to figure out the word ‘indiscretions’ but he had no clue what it meant and he couldn’t ask Raisa without admitting that he had overheard his parents fighting.

-I put up with your long trips to various locations where your secretary had to escort you, I even tolerated your mistakes during my pregnancy but if you think that I am going to tolerate you ruining Christmas for my children, you are sorely mistaken. If you leave this house today, do not bother coming back!”

“What do you want from me Moira? I run QC and I do it well. I-”

“You forget that my father gave you the money for your company.”

“Forget? How could I possibly forget when you constantly remind me of the fact?”

Now, his father sounded angry too. They didn’t speak again for a long time.

“Robert. Stay,” his Mom finally said in a really soft voice. “Don’t make me beg.”

Ollie didn’t like that. His Mom was wonderful. She spent all her free time with him and the baby. She taught him many things, she took care of him when he was sick and she even sat on the floor with him and Tommy playing board games. Besides, moms shouldn’t have to beg. Dads should stay home on Christmas day because they wanted to. At the thought, the pressure on his chest increased and his eyes became itchy. 

“Goodbye, Moira. See you tomorrow.”

“Robert. I mean it, Robert! Don’t come back if you leave!”

But his father opened the heavy wooden door and left as Ollie run as fast he could to his room, crying openly without bothering to hide it. No one was there to see anyway and his dad didn’t care.

On the first floor, he could hear the baby crying too so he got into her room. His sister opened her green eyes and focused on him. At 11 months old she was too young to speak so she only cried harder to show him that she wanted a hug. Oliver picked her up carefully and with a bit of apprehension and promised her then and there that he wouldn’t become like their father. No matter how many years passed, he would always spend Christmas with her. And if he ever had a wife, she would never have to beg him. He would stay on his own.

Growing up, Oliver did not remember much about that Christmas morning and his promise because something even more important happened after his parents’ fight. His father didn’t have another chance to spend the holidays with his children. As fate would have it, Robert Queen died in a crash that same day on December 25, 1995. 

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, we have a few things to discuss... First of all, I apologize to those of you who love Ray. I love him as well, but someone had to be the bad guy here. At least from Oliver's point of view. You also got an insight into Felicity's feelings as far as her professional development is concerned. Secondly, I'm sure you didn't enjoy it but this peek into Oliver's past was important to me. I hope to make it up to you next time. ;-)
> 
> As always, thank you for reading! You can leave a comment below or find me on Tumblr where I obsess about Olicity.


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